


lily evans and the world she saved

by LolaDreamer



Series: whispers heard in hogwarts' walls [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Lily Evans & the Marauders - Freeform, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter Friendship, Sirius Black & Lily Evans Potter Friendship, a look at Hermione Granger and how she saved the world, a look at Lily Evans and how she saved the world, aka Why We Owe Lily Evans Potter Everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:47:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23564032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LolaDreamer/pseuds/LolaDreamer
Summary: Lily Evans was a fighter, a flame trapped in a human body.James Potter was definitely in love with her.The absolute truth of the matter was this: Lily Evans befriended every Marauder before she gave James Potter the light of day.But James Potter was just a piece of her story.
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Lily Evans Potter, James Potter & Lily Evans Potter, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Peter Pettigrew & Lily Evans Potter, Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Lily Evans Potter
Series: whispers heard in hogwarts' walls [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1696033
Comments: 11
Kudos: 54





	lily evans and the world she saved

The absolute truth of the matter was this: Lily Evans befriended every Marauder before she gave James Potter the light of day.

Another truth: James Potter knew this, bemoaned this, and was convinced his friends wanted him to suffer.

James Potter was, of course, right. However, his friends weren't intentionally causing him to suffer. And neither was Lily Evans. She had the right to choose her own path. James wasn't denying that at all. She didn't owe him anything. He certainly didn't want her to choose him out of pity, after all.

And it definitely took some growing up for the two of them to get together.

~~~

Their respective groups didn't really mingle until fourth year, when Lily and Remus started studying together in the library on weekends. James and Sirius avoided the library whenever possible, so it took several weeks for them to even find out about it.

They found out rather abruptly when Lily sat next to Remus at lunch to hand him an essay, say "It looks perfect, Remus-- I only changed one thing, and I've rewritten mine entirely just after proofreading yours, it was so good--" and then kissing him on the cheek and flouncing away.

It took Remus a good three weeks to convince his friends that he was not dating Lily Evans.

In their fifth year, Lily and Remus were Prefects together, and this only solidified their friendship. They patrolled together and discussed everything there was to discuss. Lily, being an exceptionally smart student, deduced that Remus suffered from Lycanthropy, and brought him chocolate from her personal stash.

(The first time she had handed him a bar of chocolate in front of his friends, he had handed a different bar back to her, as had become part of their tradition. But it was the synchronized "Until our next monthly deal" that left James, Sirius, and Peter sputtering.)

(Years later-- only three years later, to be fair, when Lily and Remus were nineteen and Lily was preparing to walk down the aisle, arm in arm with Remus because her father, grandfather, and one uncle had all passed away, Remus handed her a piece of chocolate and whispered, "You know, you're the best sister I could have ever asked for.")

(Two years after that, with a baby running around the house and an exhausted Lily trying to keep up with him, Remus visited, as he did at least once a month, giving her one final piece of chocolate, though neither knew it at the time, as they laughed together over a cup of tea and watched Harry fly around on the toy broom Sirius had given him.)

(Twelve years after that, Remus drank another cup of tea, looked up, and saw Lily's eyes again, reflected in her son drinking tea across from him.)

~~~

In their fifth year, Lily Evans saved Peter Pettigrew. In a sense, at least. Snape had deliberately combined explosive ingredients in Peter's cauldron, and in a true act of heroism, Lily had physically jumped over the desk and tackled Pettigrew to the ground, while also casting a Shielding Charm over them.

James practically worshiped the ground she walked on for a week. Peter was also extremely grateful, if not a little resentful. 

Still, Lily and Peter had a unique bond in that they had both been raised by Muggles, though Peter was a Halfblood. They would often talk about Muggle things in dramatic ways just to confuse the others, and Peter felt a special sort of connection with the idea of an inside joke with the Lily Evans that James couldn't get the attention of. It was like a special accomplishment.

("Peter, did you hear about the automatic mechanical microwave oven that was just invented?" Lily would whisper dramatically over breakfast, sliding onto the bench next to him and ignoring James promptly choking on a bagel. 

"Of course, of course," Peter would whisper back gleefully. "I heard that there's an entire line of dryers and vacuums too, just waiting to improve the mechanical maintenance of the world."

And Lily would laugh, and smile-- and Lily Evans had a smile that would stop the heart of any creature with a soul.)

(The last time Peter Pettigrew made Lily Evans smile was not the last time she saw him. The last time he made her smile was the day he gave Harry four stuffed animals, and Lily laughed, bright and clear and vibrant, as Harry promptly threw the deer across the room and hugged the little wolf cub for dear life.)

(The last time Peter Pettigrew saw Lily Evans was at an Order meeting, and Peter couldn't meet her eyes.)

~~~

In their sixth year at Hogwarts, Lily and the Marauders were on much friendlier, open terms. Remus and Lily were basically brother and sister at this point, but it was actual family drama that pushed Lily and Sirius towards friendship.

Lily was sixteen, a war against her kind was waging, and she was constantly trying to prove her worth in a world where many thought she didn't belong.

Sirius Black was sixteen, from a family that hated him, constantly trying to prove he didn't belong to the same ideals his family clung to.

There were countless ways they could have bonded; countless scars on their souls that matched.

And yet it was something much simpler that brought them together.

Lily wasn't the type of person to cry in frustration. She held her anger and resentment in, and rather liked to demolish things instead.

Sirius Black skipped the "holding it in" stage and went straight for the demolition.

Still, this was how they truly bonded: Lily had received news from her mother that her sister Petunia was getting married. Petunia had actually written to Lily, for the first time ever, and Lily was ecstatic-- beyond ecstatic-- as she opened Petunia's letter at the table.

She promptly wished she hadn't, as the entire Gryffindor table fell silent when she, angry and upset and betrayed like she hadn't been since Severus, and this hurt even worse-- almost eerily calmly stood up, fists clenched, and wandlessly and wordlessly exploded every single dish on the table.

She turned and walked out, ignoring the immediate silence that had fallen.

Sirius was the one who found her, an hour later, in the kitchen throwing plates at a wall and shouting under a Silencing charm.

"I must say, Evans, that was the most dramatic piece of magic I've ever seen anyone pull off," Sirius had said, rather nonchalantly.

Lily had turned to him, face flushed and eyes flashing green with anger, hands trembling.

Sirius stepped forward and gently grasped her hands, healing the several cuts she'd inflicted with the broken plates surrounding her.

"You are deceptively frightening, you know that?" he hummed as he healed her, bandaging the wounds. 

Lily said nothing.

"I read your letter," Sirius said simply. "And I am sorry, you know, for the privacy breach. It's just-- we were worried that your family had been attacked, and that seemed more important in the moment."

Lily supposed her reaction had been a bit hasty. And for anyone who didn't understand the complex relationship between her and Petunia, it would seem like a total overreaction to explode a table over not being invited to a wedding.

"My sister's getting married," she explained, taking a deep breath and studying the floor. "She's never written to me here before, and she hates me during the summers-- and the first letter she ever writes, the first time she reaches out-- she's telling me not to come to her wedding. As the one gift she wants from me."

She looked up at that point, meeting Sirius's eyes. He looked rather understanding-- she knew his own family was complicated, so he probably understood better than any of their friends.

He held out his arms.

She stared at him for a moment.

"Oh, come on, Evans, I'm not going to leave you here like this, and I'm bad at talking, but I give great hugs."

Lily grinned at this, and wrapped her arms around him.

This, of course, was when James, Remus, and Peter caught up with Sirius. James made a noise like a dying chicken and Lily and Sirius instantly burst into laughter, but the moment stood.

(Later, when Sirius was standing alone in a tower after talking with Regulus and realizing his brother was in too deep to be saved, to far gone to ever be free-- it was Lily who was there to comfort him. Lily was the one who could read him almost as well as Remus, but Lily was far more open than Remus was with expressing this-- Lily was the one who would wrap her arms around him and hunt him down when he was sulking. She was his sister, too. They ranted about their problems to each other and destroyed things together and were the family the other needed.)

(Sirius screwed up and told Severus how to approach the Willow. Lily heard the story in horror, watched as her old best friend, who had betrayed her, who she would never forgive, but still cherished memories of-- was almost killed by one of her current best friends-- well. It put a damper on their friendship, but Lily wasn't the one who had been wronged, and she wasn't going to add more drama to this particular tale. She spent a solid month with Remus while he avoided Sirius like the plague.)

(On their wedding day, Remus and Sirius pretended to fight over the honor of walking Lily down the aisle, but Sirius's first commitment was James. He liked to say that he was the one who walked James down the aisle. Lily liked to say Sirius was her husband's husband. Sirius liked to say there was no proof of that, but that his bond with both of them was sacred and unbreakable.)

(He would also loudly declare that Lily was a better kisser than James would ever be. Lily would roll her eyes and say that they had only kissed once, and they had both been drunk. James would then roll his eyes and declare that he and Sirius had kissed completely sober, just to practice, and of course that's why he was worse at the time.)

(The last time Lily Evans saw Sirius Black, he was charming a motor bike piece by piece and chasing Harry around the yard on a tiny floating toy broomstick. It was a treasured memory, especially when Harry flew straight at James and knocked him down, then flew away cackling.)

(The next week, Lily got a letter from Sirius stating that Regulus had been killed. She wrote back, asked him to come over. She knew he couldn't be left alone, but she couldn't leave the house.

She never saw him again.

He saw her three days after he received her letter, lying on the floor, red hair spread around her like fire, green eyes still open and defiant and those same green eyes crying at him from her son in the crib behind her.

The grief was overwhelming-- beyond maddening-- but a small part of him, subconsciously then and actually realized later, was entirely unsurprised that Lily Evans Potter, best student in her class and one of the most gifted pupils Hogwarts had ever seen, who had once exploded an entire table out of rage, who fought every day to prove she was worthy of a place in the magical world, who had taken down seven Death Eaters in a raid before a prophecy had pushed her into hiding-- yes, it shouldn't have been surprising at all that Lily Evans was the one to destroy the Dark Lord.)

~~~

And that leaves James Potter.

James Potter thought he was in love in his second year at Hogwarts, and it happened like this:

He was on the Hogwarts express, yelling at a fifth-year Slytherin who had called him a blood traitor. The Slytherin had just walked away, and James had pulled his wand-- out of anger, he didn't really know very many offensive spells as a twelve-year-old-- and Lily had charged out of a compartment, yelling at him for trying to attack a student whose back was turned.

Third year, he asked her to Hogsmeade. She said no. He asked why she was pretending to dislike him, as he had no negative qualities. She listed quite a few things he hadn't been aware people could think and then dumped pumpkin juice on his head.

Fourth year, he was preoccupied with the process of becoming an Animagus. Remus and his friends would always come first, even if he didn't actively voice this thought. Out of the corner of his eye, he did notice that Lily was as gorgeous as ever.

Fifth year, Sirius had been kicked out of his house and was full of teen angst. James was with him almost constantly, keeping him grounded and helping however he could. Remus also befriended Lily, apparently, which led to James asking her out several more times. She refused, though none quite so viciously as a time at the Lake with Snape present.

Sixth year, Sirius made a monumental mistake. James, once again, stayed with Sirius after having a surprisingly mature discussion with Remus about the situation. Remus knew Sirius almost as well as James did, and knew that Sirius couldn't be left alone with all the self-loathing he was going through.

But James was adamant that he knew Sirius was in the wrong and needed to give Remus time.

They were all brothers, after all, and time would heal all wounds. They all knew, deep down, that this would pass.

Remus had voiced this to Lily, when she remarked on James not staying with Remus and instead being with Sirius. Lily had looked completely shocked.

"We have grown up, you know," Remus said, somewhat bitterly. "It's not about pranks or laughs anymore, Lily. And Sirius was stupid, but we'll move past that. It's a war out there, and in here. It doesn't really matter who we'd like to be now, because that's not who we need to be."

Seventh year, James Potter was made Head Boy and Lily Evans was made Head Girl.

She was shocked. He was also shocked.

But seventh year wasn't an easy one, and James really had grown up. Three separate Muggleborn students' families were attacked throughout the school year. One muggleborn student was attacked by a student in the castle. Threatening messages were being left all over the place.

Lily fought against these like an angel of vengeance. She dazzled the world, in James' eyes. 

And one day, the day after his birthday, when he hadn't asked her out because he had come to his senses and even apologized for his obviously unwanted attention in the past-- she asked him to Hogsmeade.

He was extremely nervous, of course, but he really didn't need to be. The two of them clicked together so well-- and Lily was a force of nature. James was a messier force of nature, admittedly, but the two of them together? They swept through the school.

James and Lily were a captivating duo. They created organizations, wrote scathingly humorous political newspapers (with the help of Remus) that they spread around the school, taught defense clubs. 

Lily was the best dueler James had ever seen, and James was a close second.

(Two months after they graduated, James asked Lily to marry him. She said yes, and they stayed engaged for almost an entire year, both of them Aurors, before marrying.)

(Aurors wasn't exactly the right term. They were both members of the Order of the Phoenix, and they were two of the most successful duelists to have ever partnered up in the Order.)

(When Lily walked down the aisle, wearing a simple white dress and a radiant smile, James cried much more than she did.)

(When Lily told James she was pregnant, he cried more than she did then too.)

(When they were told of the prophecy that would force them into hiding, because their son might be the one to bring down Voldemort-- Lily accepted hiding to keep her baby safe, but rejected the prophecy as truth.

"He's a child, and the war won't last long enough for him to be the one to defeat Voldemort," she had said, eyes flashing. "Really, Albus, you should know better than this. Prophecies are twisted all the time. They never mean what people expect--"

Dumbledore had cut her off, smiling gently. "I agree, my dear. But Tom will not see it that way, and he will view you and your son as his greatest threat.")

(When Harry had been born, James could see his son looking exactly like he did until the moment he opened his eyes and James saw they were green, green like Lily's were. He had never loved anyone as much as he loved Harry in that moment, and in every moment after that. Inwardly, he was a little glad they were forced to stay in their little house. He didn't want to miss a single moment of Harry's life.)

(When Voldemort found them, James wasn't even carrying his wand. He knew there was nothing he could do, but he faced Voldemort anyways, and had the satisfaction of punching him, just the once, in his ridiculously flat face.

He also knew this meant Peter was dead. Peter, after all, was one of his brothers. Peter would have never betrayed them willingly.)

~~~

Voldemort didn't hear of Lily Evans until one of his Death Eaters, Severus Snape, approached him with a simple request: to spare her life and offer her a chance of joining them.

Then the prophecy was spoken.

Voldemort might not have placed much value in the prediction of the future, but defeating a baby now was certainly an easy solution to the potential problem.

So he tracked down a link-- a Peter Pettigrew, who was alone and scared, because the world was a cruel place and friends couldn't be around all the time to save souls from darkness.

Tom Riddle went to the Potter residence.

James Potter was a Pureblood, and it was almost a shame he needed to die, Voldemort mused-- at least, until James somehow managed to punch him- what a Muggle move-- before he was struck down.

The mother, with hair as red as a Weasley's, was standing in front of the baby's crib.

Voldemort, Dark Lord though he was, honored his word.

He offered Lily Evans a chance to join his side. To spare her life for the life of her child's.

She held her head high and refused, hands bloodied for some reason.

If he had bothered to learn more about Lily Evans, if he hadn't underestimated her by the Muggle surname she bore, he would have learned of her determination and her lack of admitting defeat. He would have pieced together the blood on her hands with a series of spells around the room, made invisible, that she had researched and placed there painstakingly over the past year. He would have noticed the trace of blood magic humming in the air, activated by the blood she had just spilled. He would have noticed that she had obviously had time to get away while he walked up the stairs, and had instead chosen to slice her hand open.

But he did not notice this, and so he struck her down. She fell, green eyes piercing and red hair flying.

The baby did not cry.

He approached it, cast a spell with a sneer--

And his world was torn apart, filled with pain.

~~~

(Many, many years later, in a Great Hall filled with death and fear, Harry Potter faced down Voldemort and declared, loudly, for the world to hear: "Did you know that, Tom? It was a Muggleborn witch who defeated you the night you tried to kill me as a baby, and it was a Muggleborn witch who tracked Horcruxes and saved my life-- and it's their sacrifices, not mine, that have led me here. And you know what? In a hundred years, they'll be praised and remembered, and you'll be the reason their names are honored.")

(Hermione Granger, covered in dirt and blood, standing to the side, gave Tom Riddle one last twisted glare before Harry finished the battle. Her battle was not over yet. She was going to transform the world, and that she certainly did-- Minister of Magic, leader of social reform, advocate for werewolf rights.)

(Lily Evans had started the fight. Hermione Granger was going to carry that fight with her, and pass it on to every Muggleborn female facing the same sexist and blood-elitist hurdles they had overcome.)

(James Potter was a part of Lily Evans' story, and Harry Potter was a part of Hermione Granger's story. But they are not the only parts of their stories worth telling.)

i don't own harry potter or any of these characters.


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